She calls it propaganda gardening.  Pam Warhurst is the co-founder of England's Incredible Edible.   Incredible Edible takes over vacant land and creates community gardens.  All done without a "flippin' strategy document."  

TAKE A LOOK…

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The emphasis on the built environment in public health is hard to escape.  Conferences, podcasts, webinars.......you name it......there is a discussion concerning getting people to walk more frequently in their daily lives.  The task for public health practitioners is to bring evidence to discussions in order to inform decision makers on parks, transportation, and planning boards to consider public health goals in their deliberations. 

If asked, anyone working on community health…

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     This evening I attended a public meeting for the One Bay Area sustainable communities planning process.  The meeting is one of several public input meetings being held in communities across San Francisco Bay  Area counties and cities that are members of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). 

     Public health policy advocates are not strangers to political opposition; however, the pro-freedom of choice and anti-government contingent present at the planning meeting held…

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I don't know if you are going to APHA 2010 in Denver, but if you aren't here is a good sampling of obesity interventions ranging from GPS to school nutrition standards. Of course, you could make your way through the 288+ presentations/posters/roundtables/panels regarding obesity on the APHA annual meeting website.

You will only be able to access abstracts if you do not have a subscription to the journal.…

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Summer is over and it is back to teaching another batch of students. This year we are piloting a nursing assistant program with the hope of filling the pipeline with students of color who can take advantage of health reform workforce programs or funds. Vacationing in Greece (go visit...they need our money) was a good decision, and the lecture at the nursing college was well-received. A special "shout out" to Tamar Knox who I connected with on this network for tips that came in handy in the Q…

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You've probably heard about the unique partnership forged between the EPA, HUD, & DOT to create liveable communities. The Department of Transportation has a very good website (in the main DOT website) with really good explanations and case studies.

What I like about the site is that it includes rural and suburban examples of liveability. From what I have seen on this network, posts are little heavy on urban centers & that should really not be so. The bias is very obvious and…

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The Active Communities / Transportation (ACT) Research Group serves as a focal point of research among students, faculty, and researchers who specialize in land use-transportation policies and programs relating to "active" communities and/or "active" transportation. The group is based at the University of Colorado (Boulder and Denver). Current projects include examining the factors influencing the types of neighborhoods households choose, how individuals…

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Walk 21 is an international organization dedicated to making communitie more walkable around the world. The website has several papers on walking from various fields, ranging from engineering to sociololgy. The home page reads:

"Walk21 exists to champion the development of healthy sustainable and efficient communities where people choose to walk. Through the Walk21 Conference series and the International Charter,…

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The American Planning Association is taking the lead in making community health a central principle in municipalities across the country. APA launched the Planning and Community Health Research Center.

According to its web page:

"The Center is dedicated to integrating community health issues into local and regional planning practices by advancing a program of research, outreach, education, and policy. By working closely with policy makers, public health professionals,…

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HAPPY 2010!

It's already 2010 here in St. Louis, MO. If any of the public health types on this network are thinking of work-related resolutions, I have a suggestion. I noticed several posts where folks are interested in getting a bit more grounded in the basics of planning/land use principles. The website below offers a nice straight forward set of on-line pieces for newbies out there. (Good idea to sound as if you have some understanding about what you are talking about.… Continue

The American Society of Landscape Architects has developed a number of policy positions that are very much in synch with what healthy community advocates consider a healthy living/built environment. Landscape architects are a little known group that champions equity and sustainable practices.



Below is a copy of the policy from ASLA's advocacy page.

http://www.asla.org/ContentDetail.aspx?id=23266"… Continue